Artists like A$AP Ant, T-Pain, and Dej Loaf Dish About Their Prized Jewelry

Clothes and kicks can say a lot about someone’s personality, but no items are as revealing as his/her favorite pieces of jewelry.

During The FADER FORT Presented by Converse last week, The Fader spoke to various musicians rocking standout ornaments, which ranged from gifted watches and custom-made chains to costly rings and inexpensive necklaces. Though the pieces varied in style, price, and significance, they each had a story behind them—stories that gave us a little bit more insight to the lives of artists like T-Pain, Dej Loaf, and A$AP Ant.

Take a look below to learn more about these musicians and their prized jewelry.

A$AP Ant on his medallion chains:

“I like old school jewelry. The jewelry I’m wearing is basically a lot of ’80s and ’90s inspired gold medallions. My jewelry today is inspired by Raekwon and Ghostface, old drug dealers back in the day wearing sweatsuits and fly medallion chains. I want to bring that back because a lot of people’s jewelry is looking phony with the crosses and everything. This is my normal getup but right now I’m getting another chain made custom. I’m wearing three chains right now, I’m trying to get up to five.”

Dej Loaf on her IBGM chain:

“My IBGM chain means ‘I Been Gettin Money’. It was actually given to me by my manager Charlie. It really just represents what we believe in, it’s about not being selfish, and being used to things, so we don’t mind giving things. Like, him giving me this chain. I didn’t ask for it, I just got it. I mean that’s what it’s about. When you’re used to things, you don’t mind helping out. That’s what we’re about at IBGM, helping others and bringing opportunity to whoever. No blackballing, none of that.”

Peter Cottontale of The Social Experiment on his dream catcher earring:

“One of my friends got this earring on a trip to South Africa and gave it to me. But it caught too many dreams and broke. I used to have a gold earring that my friend had made from her grandmother’s ring. It fell out all the time and I finally lost it. I used to hate when that happened but, then I realized I lose shit so often. It’s all so immaterial—but I’ll still look for it. I lost a huge rabbit ring at my friend’s house in Los Angeles and I know it’s there, so every time I go I literally flip the whole crib upside down looking for that one ring.”

T-Pain on his chains:

“I don’t really know that much about jewelry. I know what I want it to look like, but, I don’t know like ‘this diamond’ or anything like that. So they tend to just mark it the fuck up. I’m sure I’ve overpaid for jewelry my entire life, and I don’t care as long as I get it. As long as it looks like what I said it needed to look like, and its the the same price you said it was going to be, then fine. There it is. I agreed to it, if I’d have known better I wouldn’t have, but I didn’t know better so whatever. I’m not a big jewelry connoisseur. I do like to wear it, but I’m not like I need this kind of metal, I need this kinda thing on it. I just draw it as best as I could: this is what I need to look like, here’s my logo, some other bullshit that I can’t think of…and boom, there it is. My chains are getting a lot smaller. I’m getting a lot more out of shape than I was, so can’t really carry around a big ass chain no more. That shit was 15 lbs, it was terrible. It was like carrying a small child around for you whole goddamn tour. That’s not a life I want to live anymore.”